


Rei Ayanami and Born Sexy Yesterday

by SaltinesAndPeanutButter



Category: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Genre: Character Analysis, Essay, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-28 06:03:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20421125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaltinesAndPeanutButter/pseuds/SaltinesAndPeanutButter
Summary: If you liked this analysis, please consider showing it some love on Tumblr: https://i-was-a-teenage-eldritch-horror.tumblr.com/post/187231723138/rei-ayanami-and-born-sexy-yesterdayI know my writing skills are a bit rusty. I haven't written full blown analysis since my AP Lit class in 12th grade. Also, in this essay I'm not trying to debunk that claim that Rei fits the Born Sexy Yesterday trope, because I haven't seen anyone claim that, I'm just analyzing how she subverts it.All screenshots were taken from Netflix.





	Rei Ayanami and Born Sexy Yesterday

One of my personal favorite things about Rei’s character in _Neon Genesis Evangelion _is how her character subverts the Born Sexy Yesterday trope. I did NOT coin the term “Born Sexy Yesterday,” I am borrowing it from Pop Culture Detective on Youtube. I highly recommend you watch his video on the subject before I continue with my analysis. Link [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0thpEyEwi80). Disclaimer: I first watched Evangelion with the original english dub. I am aware of translation discrepancies, however, please be aware that this informs small bits of my analysis. Trigger warning for discussions of child abuse, misogyny, and assault.

In _Neon Genesis Evangelion_, Rei Ayanami exhibits many traits that seemingly align with the Born Sexy Yesterday trope. However, these traits are expanded on and are revealed to be not what they seem- namely, these traits do not exist to further fanservice or to make Rei appealing to male characters as a potential romantic partner. Ultimately, Rei’s Born Sexy Yesterday traits are inextricably linked to her trauma.

In episode 5, there’s a scene where Shinji accidentally sees Rei nude. You all know which one I’m talking about. Characters who fit the Born Sexy Yesterday trope are often unaware of their sex appeal and are disconnected from their body. This is more or less ubiquitously portrayed as a virtue; the female character is free from adult burdens and stresses. However, in Rei’s case, her disconnection from her body is demonstrated in a scene that gives many viewers, myself included, a heavy dose of secondhand embarrassment and sympathy.This is the opposite of the effect that similar scenes have for characters who completely and totally fit the Born Sexy Yesterday trope. In their cases, these scenes are often of them frolicking naked in nature or of her undressing in front of men. Unlike Rei’s scene, in which she’s minding her business in her own home and is intruded upon by a boy. When Rei fails to show shame or a desire for modesty upon realizing she’s naked in the same room as a boy, it’s not a fanservice-y moment; it’s a wake up call for both Shinji and the audience. Rei also isn’t anywhere near as naive as Born Sexy Yesterday characters typically are; she knows that this is inappropriate. She asks Shinji to get off of her and is honestly pretty annoyed and curt with him throughout the whole scene. This whole scene serves as a wake up call for both Shinji and the audience. Rei isn’t just a one dimensional deep and mysterious Born Sexy Yesterday character; there’s far more going on than Rei lets on.

Another characteristic of Born Sexy Yesterday characters is that they’re almost always bubbly and eager to get to know people and socialize. Rei is the polar opposite of this. She’s not eager to make friends, as is evidenced by the scene in episode 9 where Asuka tries to befriend her. She’s not bubbly either. She’s ice cold and even when she starts to form a bond with someone she doesn’t open up and suddenly turn into a chatterbox. I briefly mentioned this in the previous paragraph, but Rei is often downright rude to her peers. I’m going to include some choice screenshots from episode 5 below which demonstrate this.

[Image description: Shinji and Rei in Rei’s bedroom. Shinji is in the process of falling while Rei stands in front of him with her back to the camera. A brown towel is draped around her shoulders and she’s holding Gendo’s glasses high above her head. End description.]

Look at the body language here. Rei looks taller than Shinji from this perspective. He’s in the process of falling, whereas Rei is stable. Rei’s holding Gendo’s glasses above her head, after snatching them right off of Shinji’s face. The towel draped around her shoulders almost looks like a king’s cape, suggesting that she’s asserting her dominance, for lack of a better phrase.

[Image description: Shinji and Rei at Nerv HQ. They are separated by an ID card reader. Rei has yanked her new ID card from Shinji’s hand, and he’s taken aback with surprise. End description.]

The “tell” in this screenshot isn’t so much Rei’s body language as it is Shinji’s. He’s quite literally taken aback with shock lmfao. He’s literally making the surprised Pikachu face. This is the second time she’s yanked something from him is like, less than an hour. Shinji is so shocked because he’s probably never experienced anyone’s being this outright rude to him (let’s recall that Asuka hasn’t been introduced yet), let alone a girl. It’s no secret that Shinji has some _very_ sexist ideas about women and girls, and this is one of the very early and very subtle indicators of that. In fact, it’s not even an indicator so much as something that makes sense in hindsight. Anyway, this analysis is about how Rei subverts the Born Sexy Yesterday trope, not about how Shinji is Not Immune To Misogyny.

[Image description: Rei and Shinji on the escalator in Nerv HQ. Rei is a few inches away from Shinji’s face and his face is turned away from the camera. Rei’s hand is reared back and she’s ready to slap him across the face. End description.]

Rei shows emotion through her facial expressions very few times throughout Evangelion, and this is one of them. She is unambiguously _pissed _and slaps Shinji across the face out of anger. This is probably the only time throughout the anime wherein Rei is truly seething with rage and is incapable of hiding it, which says a lot considering how she’s been forced to suppress every emotion, negative and positive alike. Let’s also not ignore the blush lines across her face. In older anime they sometimes draw lines across character’s face instead of coloring in blush. This means that Rei’s supposed to be going _red in the face_ with rage here, and all because Shinji said he didn’t trust Gendo. 

A lot of fans interpret this scene as Rei defending Gendo when he’s not there, thereby showing that Rei secretly idolizes Gendo or whatever. However, I have a different reading. In my opinion, Rei’s pissed off at Shinji not for insulting Gendo, but for feeling unjustified pain from her perspective. From her perspective, Shinji is complaining about not being able to be raised by someone who’s directly responsible for her suffering. Like, “How dare you be mad at him?! I’ve had to deal with him my whole life! He’s hurt me so much and you hate him because he abandoned you?” Rei is aware that she’s being mistreated. She tells Asuka in episode 11 that she isn’t treated any better. The truth is that Shinji thinks Rei’s lucky to be raised by his dad. In a later episode he concludes that Rei is the reason that Gendo abandoned him. Talk about a mutual failure to understand.

Rei’s shelteredness isn’t a virtue. It’s a vice. She’s rude to others precisely because of her trauma stemming from neglect and abuse. 

Another way in which Rei subverts the Born Sexy Yesterday trope is exemplified by her messy apartment. Let’s take a look at some more choice screenshots from episode 5. 

[Image description: A view of Rei’s front door from the inside. Her mailbox is bulging with unopened mail. End description.]

[Image description: Shinji is entering Rei’s apartment. Only his lower body is in view. The door is still ajar. The floor is littered with even more unopened mail, as is the counter top to Shinji’s right. End description.]

[Image description: A view of the ceiling in Rei’s bedroom. The top of her curtains are in view, as is the light fixture, which consists of two long tubular light bulbs. Also included is a frayed, worn string as a pull light switch. End description.]

[Image description: A view of Rei’s bed. Her school uniform is laid out on the bed. Her socks are draped over the back of a chair. Her white vans are on the floor next to the bed. Her blue and white striped pillow is stained with bright red blood. End description.]

[Image description: A view of Rei’s mini fridge. A bag of cans is hooked to the side. On top of the fridge rests a beaker of water and numerous bottles of pills as well as a bag from the pharmacy. To the fridge’s right sits an open cardboard box filled with white bandages with bright red blood stains. End description.]

[Image description: A view of Rei’s dresser. The top drawer is slightly ajar. On top rests Gendo’s glasses, and 3 books with multiple bookmarks in each. End description.]

I don’t want to analyze these screenshots separately because I think they work best as a group. Characters who fit the Born Sexy Yesterday trope sometimes have messy living spaces due to their naivety and innocence, and it’s usually framed as just a quirk of being so innocent. However, in Rei’s case, her messy apartment is extremely upsetting to many viewers. Namely because Rei’s apartment is so messy while still containing so little possessions. Most of the things in Rei’s room aren’t possessions; they’re perishables or trash. Bloody bandages or medicine. Let’s also take note of the fact that Rei is never seen wearing anything other than her plugsuit or her school uniform, unless you count Rei I. It’s incredibly likely that she doesn’t have anything else to wear, unfortunately. Speaking of clothing, notice that her underwear drawer isn’t filled with neatly folded and tucked underwear. The garments are stuffed in, likely without a second thought, further emphasizing how disconnected Rei is from her body, and by that extension, her appearance.

Rei’s living space is not the picture of whimsy and innocence; it’s the picture of dysfunction and pain in it’s most raw and brutal form. A teenage girl whose prized possession is a broken pair of glasses and whose room is mostly filled with literal garbage and medical waste is indeed a tragedy and serves as an harrowing reality check on what life would actually be like for a test tube baby and medical anomaly like Rei. Other wholly Born Sexy Yesterday characters provide a polished, male fantasy consisting of a sheltered naive woman prancing around in her messy room with colorful pillows and articles of clothing strewn on the floor while wearing skimpy pajamas or another sexually appealing outfit. In contrast, Rei’s neutral colored room, interrupted only by bright splotches of red blood, provides a glimpse into a literal living hell. 

Rei’s character also greatly subverts the concept of innocence as a virtue which is often present with Born Sexy Yesterday characters. The most innocent incarnation of Rei was Rei I, who was very young (I headcanon her as being 5 at her time of death.) The innocence that came with her young age ultimately ended up getting her killed. She mouthed off to the wrong adult at the wrong time about the wrong subject, and let me be 100% clear: Rei I’s death was NOT her fault. I’m saying this because I’ve seen one or two people saying she deserved it. Furthermore, Rei’s shelteredness is entirely a product of abuse and neglect. Gendo, her abuser, kept her sheltered from the world entirely because he didn’t intend for her to make it to adulthood and saw no reason for her to learn life skills. Let’s not mince words; that is NEGLECT which is a form of ABUSE and it is TRAUMATIZING. What I often see people fail to point out about Rei I’s death scene is that Rei says that Gendo has been ranting about Naoko to her. Gendo would’ve turned 43 in 2010 and even if you disagree with my headcanon that Rei was 5 in 2010, you can’t deny that she was a very young child. An adult divulging information to a child that they have no business knowing and that is better shared with another adult has a name. It’s called emotional incest, and Rei was a victim of it at Gendo’s hands. 

Another way that Rei subverts the Born Sexy Yesterday Trope is her relationship with Shinji. She eventually comes to have a bond with him but one would struggle to say that it’s romantic in nature. For the first few episodes, Rei and Shinji’s relationships seems to hit all of the familiar beats of Born Sexy Yesterday in spite of the previous ways in which Rei subverts the trope. Shinji is the disenfranchised relatable male protagonist and Rei is the sheltered Sci-Fi damsel in need of love. The Born Sexy Yesterday character typically serves as a whimsical contrast to the cynical male love interest, and she eventually brings him satisfaction in his life. However, by the time _End of Evangelion_ rolls around it becomes patently obvious that this is not where their relationship was ever going. Rei grants Shinji his wish to enter Instrumentality, which he mistakenly believes to be a world with no pain and no fear; the ultimate escapist fantasy, except this time it’s supposed to be a reality. If memory serves, the first instrumentality scene is the hell’s kitchen scene wherein Shinji assaults Asuka for the second time (which unfortunately isn’t the last) out of rage when he realized that Asuka would never be his placid malleable girlfriend that he had expected her to be since her debut in episode 8. Rei provides his rude awakening shortly after.

“Shinji: No one understands me.

Rei: You never understood anything.

Shinji: I thought this was supposed to be a world without pain, and without uncertainty.

Rei: That’s because you thought everyone else felt the same as you do.

Shinji: You betrayed me! You betrayed my feelings!

Rei: You misunderstood from the very beginning. You just believed what you wanted to believe. 

Shinji: Nobody wants me, so they can all just die.

Rei: Then what is your hand for?

Shinji: Nobody cares whether or not I exist. Nothing ever changes. So they can all just die.

Rei: Then tell me, what is your heart for?

Shinji: It would be better if I never existed. I should just die too.

Rei: Then why are you here?

Shinji: Is it ok for me to be here?

Rei:...”

Cue screaming.

_This _is Shinji’s wake up call in _End of Evangelion. _Rei is the one who makes him face the void and acknowledge that he misunderstood _everything, every single fuckin’ thing. _And this, more than anything else, is what sets Shinji’s development in _End of Evangelion_ in motion. Rei doesn’t provide Shinji with an emotional safe haven; she doesn’t coddle him and bring out his good side. She locks him out in the metaphorical blizzard, and unlocks a visceral existential dread and confusion that Shinji must reckon with on his own. Rei canonically dies after third impact, after all.

All in all, Rei Ayanami is a shining example of trope subversion in anime, especially considering Born Sexy Yesterday didn’t even have a name until a few years ago. Rei’s character arc is an example of fucking brilliant writing and I can’t get over how awesome of a character she is. I hope that if you’re one of those fans who says that Rei fans can’t handle strong women like Asuka and Misato, that this post has managed to change your mind. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this analysis, please consider showing it some love on Tumblr: https://i-was-a-teenage-eldritch-horror.tumblr.com/post/187231723138/rei-ayanami-and-born-sexy-yesterday
> 
> I know my writing skills are a bit rusty. I haven't written full blown analysis since my AP Lit class in 12th grade. Also, in this essay I'm not trying to debunk that claim that Rei fits the Born Sexy Yesterday trope, because I haven't seen anyone claim that, I'm just analyzing how she subverts it. 
> 
> All screenshots were taken from Netflix.


End file.
